Mexico City GP:

Five Key Moments From the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez

Maximising Mexico

With it’s high altitude and long straights, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez presents all teams and cars with a unique challenge.

Throw in a dusty circuit on Friday morning and a Pirelli tyre-testing session in the afternoon, and Saturday became somewhat of an unknown.

To be 0.1 seconds off the front row with George – on the older W15 update package – was promising, and both he and Lewis (one position further back in P6) felt there was more in the car.

After a scrappy Qualifying at COTA one week earlier, it was pleasing to have a steadier session this time around.

It would have taken a lot to be in the fight for victory on Sunday afternoon, so 22 points – our best score from a Grand Prix weekend since the summer break – is a solid return.

Teamwork On Show Again

A week on from repairing car 63 overnight to make the start in Austin, the team were called into action again on Friday night after George’s sizeable impact in FP2 meant another W15 repair job going into Saturday.

Curfew was broken, but the spirit of the team was not.

“The team boys, as always, did a stunning job,” said No.1 Mechanic Stuart.

“Fatigue did start to set in, but they all just smiled, banded together and got the job done.”

A few hours later, George had secured his 11th top-five start of the season.

Watch the full explanation of George’s W15 rebuild here.

Kimi Returns

Eight weeks after his first taste of an F1 Grand Prix weekend, junior driver Kimi Antonelli got back behind the wheel of W15 in Mexico City, running Lewis’ car as part of F1’s rules around using a rookie driver for two FP1 sessions every season.

Kimi, who will step up to partner George in the team for 2025, completed 19 laps around Mexico City, and was the quickest of the rookie drivers who took part in the session in P12.

After an early end to his FP1 at Monza in September, this was a solid step forward for the Italian, who has been shadowing the team since being announced for next season.

The next time the 18-year-old takes part in a Grand Prix weekend, in Australia next March, he will be a full-time F1 driver.

For now, Kimi’s on track focus turns to the remaining two Formula 2 rounds of the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

Another LH Milestone

300 Grands Prix weekends with a points finish, 350 Grands Prix starts, 100,000km raced and now…. 20,000 laps raced.

In a season of notable numbers for Lewis, he reached another landmark in Mexico, completing his 20,000th Grand Prix racing lap on lap 10 on Sunday.

Just like the 100,000km barrier he reached in Baku, Lewis becomes just the second driver to reach 20,000 laps after Fernando Alonso.

It was fitting to claim another milestone at a track that has brought Lewis much joy over the years. Titles four (2017) and five (2018) were both claimed with the team in Mexico.

Since the venue returned to the calendar in 2015, the seven-time World Champion has only finished outside the top four once in nine attempts.

Hola, Esteban!

It would not be a visit to Mexico without highlighting Esteban Gutiérrez. The Monterrey-born racer always plays an important part of our weekend in Latin America and this year was no different.

From giving us a flavour of everything F1 in Mexico has to offer, to a game of Jenga with Kimi and the revealing of his alter ego, Esteban once again brought his fun and energetic charm to the garage throughout the weekend.